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So not much progress recently with it being dead week and finals next week.
I did acquire a Y-pipe from a friend who use to own a Nismo. He was moving and it was collecting dust so he gave it to me. It looks like either an Agency Power Y-Pipe or Megan Racing.
Would I be able to install this y-pipe to my stock exhaust without any issues or loss of power? I would have completely disregarded this but I saw this dyno video from Z1 of an 06 that had a stock y-pipe back and a motordyne Y-pipe along with HFC's and the numbers look decent.
You can install it, but I wouldn't expect any gain, as in CS you can't tune and you can't replace the stock cats. The 2 real gains for the Z in the video you linked are the HFCs AND moreso the tuning.
Long time since the last update! Finished finals. Moved back to California. Joined CalClub SCCA for some cone hunting. I took a video of it all and made a VLOG style video for it.
It was slicker than what I am used to but it was so much fun. It seemed like everyone and their mothers had RE71's on. I ran CST because my job here decided to start me on Sunday night rather than Monday like I was told. By running CST I was able to run in the morning and still work. I got SPANKED by everyone. I think I ended up 7th in class out of 10. CST allows a majority of bolt ons, you just have to be on street tires.
Update on car: Clutch is poo. Need a new one plan on doing that soon.
Let me know what you guys think of the video also!
Little update on the car. Been really busy this summer ironically. Car keeps breaking
First was the clutch. This was horrible to do on jack stands in 100+ degree heat
New one is so pretty
Pretty sure this was the original one. No service history of it being done and it was an OE Nissan. 120k miles isn't bad
Next it being over 110 degrees out here in Palm Desert, I noticed my car felt extremely sluggish driving in traffic. I thought something broke. Popped the hood touched the air filter and DAMN was it hot. No joke about the JWT heat soaking. I was going to wrap it with gold foil but I saw DEI "cool tape" at work. I could get the gold heat wrap from DEI also but I gave this a shot. Wrapped the heatshield and intake tube and had a noticeable increase in power (or better said lack of loss) when in high heat and traffic.
I take thermodynamics next semester so don't judge me!
Brakes. Had to do something, the OE pads are horrible. Got some Stoptech Sport pads from CZP while I was in Phoenix for a few days. Super easy but the 120 degree heat this day slowed me down
Initially pads felt slightly firmer. Took it easy and followed the process outlined by Baer brakes for seasoning rotors. After that was done, wow these are impressive compared to OE. The bite is progressive as you get deeper into the pedal the bite increases, so they feel normal when easy on the brakes but getting your foot deeper in the pedal really bites down. On full effort stops I had to really restrain myself by pushing on the steering wheel so my chest wouldn't hit it.
Lastly, my first ricer mod (they grow up so fast) I have been wanting an INGs lip for the car eventually. My friend bought one for his 03 but the one he bought used was for an 06+ Luckily the guy he bought it off paint matched it to my color code. Boom mine.
Highway 74 run was a success, went up and down multiple times to vista point and they brakes didn't let up.
Trying to make it to El Toro next weekend but getting days off from my boss is reminiscent of pulling teeth from a stallion.
So I planned on going to El Toro this weekend, but my boss at my summer job refused to give me the day off. I did manage to get Friday off work so instead I went to Adams Motorsport Park for Time Attack night.
So much fun and for $20 an hour I got a lot of seat time for my money. This course is literally like a paved autocross course without the cones.
GoPro died towards the end, I was there for the first two sessions and ended up with fastest time of the day with a 45.6
When I got back I did go to Utah Motorsports Campus for autocross. Only 40 cars were registered this time. I only had a RX8 to play with in class. I set fastest in class. Spec Z was there also. Watching the Spec Z cars go by on the track while I am at autocross really makes me want to take out some student loans and join them. Hopefully next year I can actually go to the track, that is where I really want to be.
Pics:
A lot of body roll going on. Also need to rotate the tires. Rears are almost at the wear bar while the fronts look like they've been barely used.
So, from my understanding a damper change is legal in CS. I have been looking into the Bilstein B6 and B8's. Does anyone have feedback on these. I have been searching and hearing only good things. Curious to how they compare to Koni's. My primary interest in the Bilstein is I can get them for a decent discount at my workplace. I noticed eye-5's 350Z had a huge improvement from switching to Konis. I know the B8 are intended for lowering springs, but I wonder if they are any better than the B6 when coupled with the OEM springs.
Went to Autocross this weekend. I had 8 competitors in CS this time! I also had a friend co drive with me this weekend.
First of all I had to rotate my Direzzas, I hit 4/32 in the rear and 6/32 in the front. I was sliding around Utah Motorsports Campus last event. Now they were rotated I understeered like a pig! The lack of front grip brought body roll down a bit. Regardless, I was significantly slower than my usual competitor this time. He set a 47.1 as his fastest and my fastest was 48.4. Usually when he comes along we are neck and neck in times. I blame the tires (Read: EXCUSES).
Since Nationals is going on a lot of the higher ups for our region were gone. I took up New driver coordinator. This was super fun to do the course walk and show everyone tips and tricks to being faster. I did some instructional runs also so that was fun to drive other cars. One being a 370Z, man that car will wreck the 350Z in every way on course. This one I drove had 500 UTQG tires so a bit slippery to drive.
I went to UMC and got SPANKED by a ND Miata. That thing is fast! This last course really taught me how to trail brake. I'm having so much fun with trail braking now. There was one more event after this, I will get the video up soon. I also got to meet Drew T. who drives a yellow 350Z at nationals in CS. He gave me some good tips and pointers. I was looking at the results for CS at nationals this year and the ND and FRS are dominant. Anyway here is the video, my fastest is at 3:42:
Drew Tonnesen is a buddy of mine. We compete in a couple different autocross clubs around Chicago. He really has a good handle on the Z. We switch cars now and then and it is crazy how different the two cars are, Mine a 2007 GT and his a 2005 Touring. Even though we both have off the shelf koni yellows, his car feels more responsive and my car has more ultimate grip.
The ND miata is the car to have for CS. The Z is a great underdog car though.
Drew Tonnesen is a buddy of mine. We compete in a couple different autocross clubs around Chicago. He really has a good handle on the Z. We switch cars now and then and it is crazy how different the two cars are, Mine a 2007 GT and his a 2005 Touring. Even though we both have off the shelf koni yellows, his car feels more responsive and my car has more ultimate grip.
The ND miata is the car to have for CS. The Z is a great underdog car though.
Oh yea he was cool to meet and actually talk to about Z's in depth, most events here a Z shows up then disappears completely.
My goal for next year is to beat the CS Miata assuming we are in the same class next year. Struts, swaybar, and GT size wheels and more seat time and I think I will have him.
The Direzza's are completely toast. They lived a good life. One that future generations can look up to and other tires aspire to be. This was our last event in this video.
They actually added one more this last weekend. I'm putting together the video of it now. I competed on my set of daily tires which was fun, because I slid everywhere! This last event put us at 30 events for the season, apparently more events than most other regions! Little video someone made, my car didn't make it in for any action clips. Ironically I was doing an instructional in the gray 350Z at the 2:00 point, so this is still relevant.
Event 30 is in the books! It was a fun one, course design was unique and challenging I loved it. The beginning was a straight through the center, to a tight left that formed into a sweeper. At the end of the sweeper was a U-turn (I later just ripped the e-brake to get around this), go back through the sweeper and carry on through the course. After the second cross there was a hump that people were catching air on that led into a 90 degree corner. Trail braking was best here, as long as the car was settled after catching air. Slalom after this to a left hand then a wide right turn and finish was there. On my daily duty wheels (Federal 595's) I was sliding everywhere. My runs start at 4:01 in the video:
Now to start planning for next year. I'm debating on maxing my car out to CS or jumping to STU. If I go for maxing out CS I still have dampers to change, swaybar, a set of Grand Touring sized wheels and OEM Brembos. Going to STU would mean at least coilovers and a square 18x10.5 setup to stay relevant in times. Hmmmm decisions decisions...
Well I haven't updated here for awhile. Nothing new has happened to the 350Z. It has been a brutal winter here in Utah. So much snow that USU cancelled class for the first time in 10 years!
1
Last year we had 29 and that made us the most active solo region in the US, I don't think anyone is going to beat us. Who would have known Utah would have such an active autocross community.
Along with our massive schedule, the first one is this coming weekend and I still haven't bought new tires I didn't think about it with all the snow.
I'm going to run my daily duty cheapo 595's and order tires this weekend.
Plan is to run as many events as possible (especially since the track actually upped the cost of HPDE events this year) and catch my CS competitor in the ND Miata.
Wow, 38...! Yeah, we don't have quite that many... Among SCCA and another local group, I think we're 22 for the year, counting year-end finale non-points events.
You need to be careful about parts changes where you're changing model options -- Brembos were on the Touring/Track/35AE -- wheels were pretty-much model-specific as well.
The 350Z is a very good, low-budget performer. It doesn't take a lot of money investing in the car -- but greatly rewards investments in the driver.
First event was s success! I signed up to create course, this was my first so I tried hard to make it have a decent length, a challenge and flow well all at the same time. I think I succeeded, I sure did enjoy it! The night before I made a sophisticated design using the highest tech software I had available, MS Paint. See picture below:
I mean hey, it got me some idea what to work with when throwing down cones. I actually had to draw over what someone else created for a past event haha.
It was pouring rain, I was totally soaked afterwards, you can see me drenched in the video. The rain made the course funner in my opinion. Of course after everything was set up it stopped raining, such is the way of life.
I also gave instructional runs, I got to drive this S2000. The owner shouldn't have let me. God was it a fun car to drive. I went home that night looking at classifieds for them. Although, my times were in the 50's with cheapy federal 595's and he had some 'stones on his S2000 setting 54's and me setting 53's. One day I will own one.
So I set a 50.2 as my fastest time of the day. I set that in the first run group. I consistently got 50's. I actually got a 50.2 I believe 4 or 5 times. Frustrating but consistency is good, right?
I figured I could help in some way when we were done.
Here is the video, my runs in my Z are a bit later (5:32) but everything else shows all that goes on in a day at the Utah Region SCCA. Fastest at 15:30.
Now after this event someone bought my old race wheels and tires so I immediately ordered my new set for this year. I will leave what I got for a surprise
Well I got the new tires mounted. You could say I was pretty happy.
My god these are wide. They bulge in the front a bit, the rear fits perfect though.
Took it for a quick spin around the shops back roads and wow do these blow my Direzzas out of the water. The tires weren't even warm (30 degrees outside at the time) Their response is amazing especially for having so much bulge up front. I mean they are larger than my old direzzas but still, I'm thoroughly impressed. I can't wait until my first event with them.
04-29-2016, 07:27 AM
I didn't think about it with all the snow. 
